Good News Disposable Razor Blades

In 1974, Good News Disposable Razors were introduced by Gillette. “Disposable” was a new concept; one which was not familiar to many people. At that time, I was studying Industrial Design in graduate school. Not comfortable with the concept, I decided to do an experiment to see what kind of impact this idea might have on the environment.  I asked the question “How much waste would one household produce were it to use GNDR’s?”  From that moment on, Good News Disposable Razors were the only brand I’d use.

When the razors dulled, instead of throwing them away, they were thrown into a large ceramic pot.  Like any scientific experiment, I was very diligent about this; making sure nobody else in the house accidentally discarded a GNDR by mistake. In fact, at one point our friend Jo Gene was staying with us and was using the feminine equivalent.  The only difference was that her disposable razors were pink.  We had a family round (kitchen) table discussion.  Topic: should we keep Jo Gene’s razors or not?  Decision: of course, they are part of the household’s razor blade production.

In 1999, a quarter century later, I decided the experiment was over.  We had been collecting razors for the last twenty-five years.  We outgrew the ceramic pot years earlier.  Conclusion: one household, using disposable razors would produce a large shopping bag full of razor blades in twenty-five years.  To make the point, I used an oven to melt the razor blades down into what became a nine-inch cube (.42 cubic feet).

There were an estimated 114,825,428 households in the U.S. by the end of 2010.  If they all used disposable razor blades they would produce 48,441,984 cubic feet of waste every twenty-five years.  Not a good idea; really bad news.

TV Viewer for Macular Degeneration (AMD) Update

Dad still uses the TV viewer he invented when he watches television.  It has been a month or more.  That’s proof enough for me that they are helping.  As he says, the viewer doesn’t improve the image but it makes it easier to see.  He says it cuts down on glare from the surroundings.  These were fashioned from a piece of black plastic; the kind you buy in a stationery supply as a report folder.

Chocolate Easter Legs™

 

The Peachtree Hotel

1978

I was scheduled to visit Atlanta and a colleague suggested that I stay at the new Peachtree hotel.  I had heard about this new hotel in Atlanta that boasted an interior lobby that traversed the entire core of the building to the roof. It had glass elevators which added great excitement to this all new concept in architectural space.  Why not, I thought, it sounds like fun.  I called information and asked for the Peachtree Hotel in Atlanta and booked myself a room.

From the airport in Atlanta I took a taxi to Peachtree Center, downtown.  Much to my surprise, when I got to what was obviously the new hotel, my taxi pulled into the driveway across the street. “What gives?” I asked the driver, looking back at the hotel through the rear window.  “This is the Peachtree Plaza Hotel,” he said.  “Didn’t you ask for the Peachtree?”  I realized my mistake.  There are two hotels, The Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, and the Marriott Marquis on Peachtree.  “Yes, I did.”

Sure enough, when I made my way to reception and checked reservations, there was my name.  I, indeed, booked the wrong hotel.  No problem, I thought.  I’ll just walk across the street to the right hotel and I did.

After settling in, I called the Peachtree to cancel my reservation.  But to my surprise, the operator wouldn’t do it.  “I can’t,” she said, “You must cancel by 12:00 noon or there will be a charge to your credit card.”  “But, I was standing in the lobby of the hotel not ten minutes ago.  There was no one there. I’m sure you have many available rooms.  Why are you charging my credit card?” “Those are the rules, sir.”

I thought for a moment.

“OK.  Let’s just keep that reservation now, would you?” I told her.  “But I will be arriving late.”

“That’s no problem at all,” she replied.

I waited about fifteen minutes and called the hotel again.  “Hello.  I have a reservation for tonight which I would like change to tomorrow night.”

“That’s no problem at all,” she replied.

I waited about fifteen minutes and called the hotel again.  “Hello.  I have a reservation for tomorrow night which I would like to cancel.”

“That’s no problem at all,” she replied.

The Bells of Tenth Street

“Alternate side of the street parking” is the city’s attempt to make curbside parking fair and available to all while keep the streets swept and a garbage removal schedule.  One day a week, say Tuesday, one side of the street would be off limits to parking for a couple of hours.  Likewise, on Fridays, parking on the other side of the street would be off limits.  It forces people to move their cars often enough that they don’t deposit their cars in the neighborhood for the winter. On the residential street where we had our offices, alternate side parking proved very costly for me and my employees.

It never failed, that on Tuesday at 11:30 when I had to move the car, I was either on the phone or in a meeting, preoccupied with other things.  Boom.  Parking tickets in NYC were $55. Moreover, not wanting my employees to waste half the morning worrying about their cars, I made it company policy that if anyone ever got a parking ticket, the company would pay for it.  Tickets were costing the company hundreds of dollars every year.

I had one of the programmers write a program which would turn the computer into an alarm clock that would go off Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:15 and again at 12:45.  When it did, it would play a recording of the Bells of St. Mary’s from a speaker on the roof.  Bong! Bong! Bong!  When we heard the church bells, we would know it was time to move the cars.  Since there were no churches anywhere nearby, the sound was odd enough that it would always draw our attention, yet was pleasant enough not to raise objections from the neighbors.  My plan worked like a charm. We never received a parking ticket after the system was installed.

A neighbor who also happened to be a traffic court judge remarked that the scheme would fall below the radar unless parking ticket revenues fell off.  I’d better not pass along the idea to neighboring blocks.

The Pizza-gram

Mary and I were going upstate to visit our friend, Richie, who was living in a small farmhouse, not far from the center of town.  It was late on a Friday night.  Our start had been delayed and we realized as night fell that we weren’t going to arrive until well after midnight. Wanting to let Richie know we’d be late, we pulled off the highway and found a pharmacy, hopefully with a phone, on Main Street of that small village.  In 1971, there were no cellphones. In fact, we realized Richie didn’t have a phone at all.  What to do?

As luck would have it, the pharmacy was also the Western Union office and I suggested we send a telegram.  The pharmacist/Western Union rep said the cost would be $14.50 and the message would be sent first thing the next morning.  That wouldn’t do, at all, I thought. Tomorrow would be too late and $14.50 was a huge amount of money in 1971. Now what?

aha!

I took out the phone book and found Joe’s Pizzeria in Richie’s town.  I called Joe.  “I’d like a large pizza with extra cheese, please,” I said.  “Address?” asked Joe.  “123 Maple Street.” I replied.  “And Joe, could you do me a favor? Would you write on the box ‘Richie, we won’t get there until after midnight and sign it, Allen & Mary?'” “Sure,” replied Joe.  I could hear his smile over the phone.

Problem solved.  For $7.00 Richie would get the message in the next twenty minutes which would come with a hot, cheese pizza. And Richie pays the bill.

What Does a 91 Year Old Tweet About?

FollowYouFollowMe

We’ve been working on a Twitter app for Dad who is 91 years old and suffers from Adult Macular Degeneration (AMD). His poor eyesight has made his use of the computer increasingly more difficult over time.  Don’t let his age fool you, though.  He’s not afraid to try new things and poke around on the computer.  But things have gotten so bad that some applications are now out of reach.  While he would greatly benefit from things like Facebook, YouTube and email, they are all now beyond his ability to navigate.

Twitter could be the answer for some very good reasons:

1) Twitter messages are 140 characters.  That sounds like a limitation but actually for the low vision community, that has its benefits.  When font sizes are made as large as they need to be, 140 characters just about fills the screen.  Any longer, and the message would be too difficult to read simply for all the scrolling that would be necessary.

2) Attachments (in tweets they are links) are opened with a single click.  I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to explain to someone over the telephone why the attachment to their email must be downloaded and opened with another program when the person you’re talking to can’t even see the screen that well.

3) No spam.  Since direct messages to/from other persons on Twitter are to Following/Followers only, there is no unwanted advertisements, spam, or pornography.

We decided to design a Twitter app for Dad.  Our working title is FollowYouFollowMe.

This morning, Dad took FollowYouFollowMe for its first test run and it looks promising. He was able to send his grandson, who is living in Bali with his great-grandson the direct message “where are you plesae send me a message.”  It was very thrilling to get as a reply “Hi Grandpa.  I’m here in Bali.  I’m in an air-conditioned office.  Moving up in the world.  Hope all is well.  Love, Isaac. ” I was delighted when Dad was able to open his attachment and see a picture of the grandkids.

The program looks like it just might work and we’ll know in the next few sessions.

FollowYouFollowMe still needs much work to get it to the point where Dad can use it without me looking over his shoulder.  For one thing, it will have to be installed on one of his computers and Dad will have to get instructions on how to access the application.  Moreover, before anyone else could use it, the application, which is for Macintosh or Windows, must be installed and the interface between it and Twitter established.  We’re going to need some daring souls to help test and review the setup instructions.  If interested, please tweet @MacularD and let me hear from you.

 

 

Seeing Double

As my father’s Macular Degeneration gets progressively worse, Dad’s difficulties mount.  The problem is that neither Dad and nor those of us around him know when to blame the problems on his failing eyes and not something else.  Dad’s optimistic outlook often prevents him from recognizing his poor eyesight as the culprit. Just as when someone with failing hearing berates the people on television as mumblers.

When Dad started complaining of seeing double, I didn’t think of it as a sign of the progression of the disease. To this day I haven’t asked a doctor about it so what I’m saying is pure speculation.*  But here was my thinking.  Dad says he sees double images.  Not all the time, but often when he was reading something large on the screen or focusing on something specific, he will see a double image.

What I thought might be happening was that Dad’s vision had gotten worse.  It is now so poor that the brain can’t fuse the images received from both eyes as being one in the same view as seen from different vantage points.  The brain must be doing that continuously for us to see stereoscopically.  The depth perception and ability for the brain to make sense of two different views of the world as being one in the same only from different angles, is an ongoing process that allows us to function in three dimensions.  We don’t think about this process, the brain just does it effortlessly throughout our lives.  But what happens when the images are poor?  How can the brain know that the shiny blue edge of the child’s toy in one view is the same as the shiny blue edge of the toy in the other view?

First, experience tells us that there are very few shiny blue edges.  In fact, chances are there are only one.  The brain may take a leap of faith and decide to rely on the fact that these two images of shiny edges that it sees are one in the same.  Second, experience tells the brain that the left image has all of the same elements as the image from the right image except for some small changes along the right edge.  The brain probably can also conclude that when objects are similar except for right edge differences, they are probably the same object.   In Dad’s case, whoever, the images don’t have all that information.  There is no detail on the right edge because this is just a hazy shadow where the right edge should have been.  There is no blue edge because nothing is blue.  Everything is a dull black and white.  The brain refuses to make any further ‘leaps of faith’ because there isn’t enough to go by.  Dad reports seeing double.

*This is all pure speculation based on my own intuition.  Please don’t read this as fact, science or medicine.  Conjecture such as this helps me to think about the issues in order to understand the forces at work, to see problems in a different way to be able to solve problems from my unique perspective.

 

500,000 New Users/Day: What’s Twitter Worried About?

You need search no further than the Twitter Rules to discover what’s keeping Twitter up at night. These rules point out just how unscalable Twitter is, if left in its present form. But how can that be, you ask?  Twitter is great just because of its scalability; the fact that a few simple rules foster such excitement. Well… many startups have gone away just as quickly as they arose because they did too well, too fast. Can Twitter survive their success?

Twitter is signing on 500,000 users per day, currently.  There’s no other social anything, any where on the planet that is more popular.  Yet, getting new users and keeping new users are two separate matters.  Twitter encourages the very behavior that its rules forbid.

For example, with Twitter, when you find your community, you Follow (like Facebook’s Friend-ing) and then are Followed by like-minded individuals.  In short order, you have a viable audience.  What to do?  Put on a show.  You broadcast interesting tweets to your audience.  That takes several seconds.  Now what? Repeat tweets from others? Maybe. Repeat your own tweets? No. The rules say you can’t do that. Vary the message slightly, over and over again, and fill the twitter-airwaves? Nope, the Rules say you can’t do that, either.  Follow lots and lots of people?  Until you reach the 2000 Twitter-rule limit, you’re ok.  But any business worth its salt knows it will need many more customers than that to prosper and grow.  UnFollow persons you’re Following if they don’t respond in kind? Nope, can’t do that; at least not in bulk. That’s forbidden, too.

Twitter: “What constitutes ‘spamming’ will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers” and that is a moving target. But what are these rules for?

The Twitter idea is to have one gigantic mailbox into which, and from which, every last person on the planet can send, receive and search messages. But any 5th grader will tell you: that’s a lot of messages. Twitter is already at 2,314 tweets/second (assuming an average of one tweet/day/user). Those tweets must all be stored and accessible. That’s a huge computing problem; not insurmountable, but huge.

In short, the rules are about limiting bandwidth. Of course, they need a proactive approach to limit violations of copyright law, pornography and to otherwise demonstrate commonsense. But that’s it. How to save bandwidth? That’s what’s keeping the Twitter folks up late these days.  Oh, and making money.  But that’s a topic for another day.

Updating Dad’s iPhone: Adding Remote Control

Today we synchronized Dad’s iPhone with his computer and installed remote control access by my laptop.  In that way, I could modify Dad’s iPhone remotely, at a moment’s notice.  Dad lives thirty miles from my house.  It’s become a regular chore for me to update his contact list, change his podcasts or song lists or download something interesting to his iPhone.  Now, I can do the update without having to wait for my next visit to the house.

Dad calls his iPhone his left hand.  I’m not entirely sure where the expression comes from but what he means to say is that he could not be without it.  It’s that important to him.  He is 91.  He was diagnosed with Adult Macular Degeneration (AMD) in 2006.  We’ve set him up with an iPhone.  On it are several simple to use, very handy apps including Talking Clock Digital, BigNames, JustSongs and Magnifyer.  There are others, too, but these are the essential ones.

Talking Clock tells him the day, date and time when you touch the screen.  The digital display is huge but he prefers to hear the time spoken.  BigNames by Xinsight is Dad’s contact list and telephone dialer.  The names are huge and the display is set to white lettering on black background.  It works like a charm.  He has dozens of names and telephone numbers that he can read, and touch to place a call.  JustSongs is Dad’s playlist though lately he has become enamored with Edith Piaf’s La Vie En Rose for which we made a separate Home Screen button that goes directly to that one collection of songs.  Magnifyer turns the iPhone into a magnifying lens for reading labels, menus and such.

Last year I started a company called Alibali Software which produced all of the apps mentioned above with the exception of BigNames.  All are available in the iTunes store (shameless plug).